Posting on Behalf of a 7Sage User: PT4.S3.Q5 (G1)

Juliet - Student Service

[I am posting on behalf of a 7Sage user. Please feel free to leave your comments below. Thank you for your help!]

Hello, I am working through Prep Test 4, Section 3, Game 1 and I am trying to understand what's the best way to approach question #5, specifically as it relates to finding the "Minimum number" -- I have watched the explanation video a few times but I am still not sure how to begin solving this type of question?

Explanation Video: https://7sage.com/lsat_explanations/lsat-4-section-3-game-1/

Logician

By using the term minimum, the question is asking you to reduce the number of law firm salaries (of the partners) to the smallest number. we know that every different position in the sequence is a different salary.

For example. can they all make the same salary? if so, then we would have one salary and that would be effectively the smallest number of different salaries. however, we know that one doesn't work because we have multiple individuals earning more/less than others.

So our goal for this question is to see how many partners we can give the same salary (or stack) without violating the rules. As shown in the video, the minimum ends up being 7 different salaries.

My approach to this question would be to see which game pieces (law firm partners) are least restricted in regards to where they can go in the sequencing chain. If a game piece has to be before someone and after someone, I would say its rather restricted. But that also has to be taken in context. As you can see the L - N relationship can go anywhere in the chain after K, and no one has to go after the N. This means they're actually quite fluid and almost act as floaters- to a lesser extent. so these two (L and N) are the two pieces that can be stacked/grouped into the same salaries as two other partners, effectively leaving us with a total of 7 different salaries.

I hope this helped!